The emergent literacy construct and kindergarten and readiness books of basal reading series

Abstract

Reading instruction is beginning earlier and earlier for American children. This study examined the nature of reading instruction, as evidenced in the early childhood components of the basal reading materials that guide a majority of American teachers. Basal activities were examined from the emergent literacy perspective which suggests developmentally appropriate experiences that build on what and how young children learn in natural settings. Activities in student and teacher books of kindergarten and readiness components of four basal reading series were analyzed to answer two questions. The first related to the match between basal activities and the emergent literacy construct. Analyses showed that conventional readiness activities like visual, shape, and color discrimination dominated kindergarten books and that auditory discrimination activities dominated readiness books. Emergent literacy activities that experts identified as appropriate for instructional materials were not prominent in either student or teacher books. The second question pertained to differences between meaning- and decoding-oriented series in implementation of literature and decoding activities. Although series did not differ from one another in the amount of attention devoted to either literature or decoding, descriptive analyses of comprehension and decoding instruction showed that meaning-oriented series incuded more high-quality literature for teacher read-alouds, whereas decoding-oriented series allowed more connections between letter-sound correspondences and word identification. The implications of assumptions underlying these materials on children's reading acquisition and adaptations in materials that implement the emergent literacy construct are discussed.